Clint and Lisa Celebrate No. 1 Success With “When I Said I Do”

Sipping champagne and grinning from ear to ear, Clint Black and Lisa Hartman Black celebrated their first No. 1 song as a duo with a small gathering at Nashville’s BMI offices Thursday afternoon.

“Without her on this record, it would have just been me singing on another No. 1,” Black joked while receiving a special pewter cup to mark the occasion. “If you’re in print (journalism), please put ‘then he laughed’ after that line.”

In fact, Black penned “When I Said I Do” just for his wife, but he had to persuade her to join him on the record.

“For me, it may be the most special gift he could have given me,” Hartman Black told country.com after the reception. “He comes in with this song, and I was so blown away by it that I was moved to tears. He said, ‘You should sing,’ and I said ‘Oh no!’”

Hartman Black, a well-known TV actress who had her own pop singing career, admits she was “afraid” to sing on the record. She says the acclaim the single has received, including the No. 1 ranking, a Grammy nomination and an Academy of Country Music nomination for “Vocal Event of the Year,” has made her consider singing more.

“To have it do what it’s done, it’s hard to put into words,” Hartman Black said. “I can’t believe it’s gone No. 1 twice, I can’t believe it got a Grammy nomination, I was just over the moon screaming excited.”

Her husband added, “Every few hours she would realize it all over again, and she would squeal.”

Black, who has already won a Grammy and four ACM awards, says he’s more excited about the award nominations this time around because he really wants his wife to win one.

“I wanted it more than I’ve ever wanted it before, because I wanted for her to be nominated for an award more than I ever wanted to be nominated for an award,” Black said. “So everybody listening out there, know who you’re voting for!”

Black is now on the radio with another duet, this time with his friend Steve Wariner on the song “Been There.” A rumored Black/Wariner tour has been shelved for pending legal problems with a sponsor, but Black will headline a string of 70 shows that will run from the end of June through the end of October. He said he will try to “guilt Lisa” into joining him on as many dates as possible.

“You know, she does have her own career and we are trying to have a baby, so we’ll see,” Black said.

The couple has been very candid lately about wanting to have children, and, after nine years together, have now made it a priority.

“We went through a period and arrived at the conclusion that we did want a family,” Black said, “and that dogs weren’t going to produce any grandchildren.”